Joyce Barnes Won’t Seek Another Term On Centralia City Council

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A longtime presence on the Centralia City Council will not seek reelection next year.

Joyce Barnes stated during Tuesday’s council meeting that she plans to vacate her at-large council position when her term expires at the end of 2019. She began her second stint on the council in 2016, having previously served for six years in the 1990s.

Barnes made the announcement while speaking in favor of increasing the stipend city councilors receive, which is $200 a month except for the mayor, who receives $400. She noted that she wouldn’t reap the benefits of such an action, because she isn’t going to serve another term.

“I’m turning 85 soon and want to enjoy my property in Yuma (Arizona) during the winters,” Barnes said. “I’m definitely looking for people to run for my spot. It’s an at-large one, so it’s not bound by a district.”

Barnes has served on many local community boards and commissions during her more than six decades of at least part-time residence in Centralia. She’s spent time on the Centralia-Chehalis Airport Board, the Centralia Fire Advisory Board, and worked for decades to keep the Pearl Street Pool open.



It was the council’s decision in 2015 to not allow an organization more time to raise money to restore and reopen the pool that led her to run against then-incumbent Bart Ricks.

She is the last-surviving founder of the Centralia Summerfest celebration that began more than four decades ago and served as the grand marshal of the Fourth of July event in 2017.

Councilor Peter Abbarno and Mayor Lee Coumbs hold the other two at-large positions on the city council. Both will be up for reelection next year; neither have said publicly whether they’re going seek another term.